Messi: Argentina must remain united after Brazil humbling

Argentina has suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of arch-rival Brazil to put its World Cup qualification hopes under a cloud. Today we have to be more united than ever.

Brazil's Neymar, center, celebrates with teammates Philippe Coutinho, left, and Gabriel Jesus after scoring his side's second goal against Argentina during a 2018 World Cup qualifying soccer match at the Estadio Mineirao in Belo.

"We have to work on everything that we need to work on".

While Uruguay maintained their push towards the finals in Russian Federation with a hard-fought defeat of Ecuador, the Brazilians cemented their spot at the top of the South American group with a stunning show in Belo Horizonte in the Estadio Mineirao. However a fifth-place finish would mean that they would have to engage in a play-off encounter against an Asian country. Argentina are sixth at the moment with 16 points and they need to go on a winning run to avoid missing out on the 2018 World Cup in Russian Federation.

Argentina are now in real danger of making it to Russian Federation and are currently sixth in the 10-team South American table. I mean, there are many players with great technical qualities that in an individual play, in a moment of creation, can make the difference. We have to think about Colombia knowing that we have to improve greatly. Under Tite's regime, star players such as Neymar and Philippe Coutinho are thriving, settling in smoothly in the Selecao while playing the same positions they feature in for their club teams.

"Argentina were better at times, they caused some problems and we had to reduce the amount of chances that Messi had to get the ball away from the area".